Asus Triton 88 Review - Page 3

Despite the lack of instructions, installation was pretty straightforward; it's simply a matter of finding the clips for your desired socket, and then screwing them to the base of the heatsink as shown:

  
Attaching the mounting brackets

After that, you need to place the correct mounting plate under the CPU socket. As you can probably ascertain, it's therefore impossible to mount this heatsink without first removing the motherboard from the case (at least the first time), although I don't see this as flaw myself as I'm not a fan of the weak 'push-pin' locking system used by many heatsinks, such as that utilised by the Intel reference design.

After applying the thermal interface material, the heatsink can be mounted on top of the CPU. The Triton 88 helpfully has arrows to show you which way the air is blowing, making it easier to orientate the heatsink correctly, blowing the warm air to the rear of the case. I know I've 'fixed' more than one computer for people by simply pointing the heatsink in the correct direction, so this subtle touch is nice to see.

'Air blows this way' - simple and effective

Actually tightening the screws to the mounting plate is a little awkward at first, as despite it looking like you can tighten them with a cross headed screwdriver, this is pretty much just for show, as the main part of the heatsink above blocks all access to the tops of the screws.

  
Nope, you're not using a screwdriver there

This is where that little spanner comes in. If you're fitting this heatsink to an Intel socket yourself, I'd suggest pushing the screw down with one finger, and turning the screw with the spanner until it 'bites' into the mounting plate. Once all four screws are in, tightening them is fairly easy, even with various heatsinks and capacitors around the CPU socket.

Stop, spanner time

If you're an AMD user, the supplied AMD clip is passed through the heatpipes, where it sits in a dip in the base. This clip then hooks onto the AMD mounting bracket that's already on the motherboard.

..

The Triton 88 comes with clips which allow you to attach a fan to either side of the heatsink, giving you the ability to attach three 120mm fans in total. It's worth noting however that (despite no indications that you should be able to dot this) that you can actually reverse them and install any 120mm fan in the middle.

  
Not designed to work that way, but it works just fine

The top grey bit of metal with 'Asus' printed on needs a little modification to go back on top (see below), but there's no reason to re-attach it if you don't want to (by the way, this metal is attached with torque head screws instead of normal cross-headed ones). This ability to utilise different 120mm fans with the Triton 88 will allow me to test both the Tuniq Tower and Triton 88 with the same fans later on, allowing for a direct comparison between their cooling abilities.

  
Just don't bend it too much, or it might break off!

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Article Navigation:

• Introduction
• Specifications
• Packaging and a closer look at the Triton 88
• Installation
• Testing and Methodology
• Results
• Conclusion